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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Some awfully big names were among the dozens of NFL head coaches, general managers and scouts that gathered Wednesday at the University of Alabama for the Crimson Tide's annual pro day event, even though some of Alabama's top players were only taking part in the workout on a limited basis.
Some of those spotted: New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan as well as Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese and Minnesota Vikings general manager Rick Spielman.
The main attraction was no doubt the 40-yard dash by Crimson Tide linebacker C.J. Mosley, who reportedly ran an unofficial time in the 4.6 range, although his official time has not yet been released. Mosley ran the 40 twice, went through other drill work, then took time with reporters to refute reports that his medical history had been red-flagged by some NFL clubs.
With Mosley's draft projections varying fairly wildly throughout the first round, more clubs than not could be in play for the Butkus Award-winning senior.
A few other notables from the event:
» Speaking of medical histories, offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio addressed reports of lingering knee issues, and said he will wait until April 8 to try and improve on his NFL Scouting Combine-worst 5.59 40-yard dash. Kouandjio went through position drills only. He's dropped 11 pounds since the combine, down to 311, and said he feels significantly lighter on his feet at that size.
» UA quarterback AJ McCarron threw for scouts and went through a few drills, though he didn't run the 40 again (he did so at the combine). A member of the Houston Texans' scouting contingent appeared to be paying especially close attention to McCarron. His three targets included former UA receiver Kevin Norwood, whose 4.48 40-yard dash at the combine did nothing but help his draft stock. As such, Norwood went nowhere near the 40-yard starting line Wednesday.
» Alabama safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, who could be the first UA player drafted in May, went through position drills but stood on his 4.58 40 time from the combine. San Diego Chargers secondary coach Ron Milus kept Clinton-Dix busy during position drills for defensive backs, along with late-round cornerback prospect Deion Belue and a few other UFA hopefuls.
» Arizona Cardinals defensive line coach Brentson Buckner took a particular interest in UA linebacker Adrian Hubbard, putting the early-entry junior through position drills. At one point during a drill requiring Hubbard to lock out his arms to shed a block, Buckner proved too strong, drawing a laugh from Hubbard. Buckner, in turn, cracked a joke that Hubbard wouldn't be playing against Vanderbilt anymore.
» Retired linebacker Rolando McClain, a 2010 first-round pick of the Oakland Raiders, attended the workout as an observer. McClain said he is considering a comeback attempt, but hasn't yet made any decision:
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.


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Article number: | P-17267 |
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Stefan has been a Professional Photographer and Artist for over 25 years. For the last 15 years he has also been a Professional Printmaker in the digital arts. Making his home in Hawaii for nearly 20 years has influenced his subject matter and use of color. His love of poster art and print making from the1960's and into the 1970's has driven him to create a line of work that reflects Hawaii and the style of vintage poster art. Working with a limited color palette and solid graphic shapes, Stefan creates playful images that express Aloha and the magic of Hawaii.All prints are printed by Stefan on a beautiful smooth matte paper which delivers exceptional color gamut & dmax (rich deep blacks). This paper also maximizes the clarity and crispness of each image. Combined with the latest ink technology from Canon Stefan's prints exceed the highest print standards.

subset: commoncrawl


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Today, on the Strobist Surgery Channel...
Remember the chicken neck-breakin' version of making your SB-800 rotate around to 135 degrees in the other direction? Yeah, well, as of today that method has now been ruled Barbarian and out-of date.
Watch as South Carolina shooter Lee Morris shows you how to do it the civilized way -- and it is pretty darn easy. Being a smart guy, Lee sticks his portfolio in at the end, too.
Note that the video seems to load a little slowly, so you might want to let is play for 30 secs and then back it up to keep it going nonstop.
Again, the reason you really want this ability is not to be able to bounce a vertical, on-camera flash off of a wall behind you. But rather you want to be able to point the flash any direction and the CLS receiver (or SU-4 slave) in any other direction.
Same disclaimer applies: You break your SB-800, don't come crying to me. But I am going to try this method on one (and then, hopefully, all) of my '800's.
IMPORTANT: Mind you do not touch any wires that appear to be heading toward the main capacitor, which is likely inside the tube where the flash head pivots (haven't opened mine yet.) That cap can hold hundreds of volts and be very dangerous.
Additionally, I would fire the flash on full manual and then immediately turn it off. Then wait a day or so before opening it up to bleed what little juice will have gotten back into the capacitor. If you are not comfy with this kind of stuff, skip this one or get help from a solder monkey friend.
(You can see more of Lee's work here.)
New to Strobist? Start here | Or jump right to Lighting 101
Got a question? Hit me on Twitter: @Strobist
Have a passport? Join me in Hanoi: X-Peditions Location Workshops


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Damsels in Distress, the comedy that marks the return of American director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco) and a new phase in his highly personal journey into the world of American youth, is to be the Closing night film (Out of Competition) at the 68th Venice International Film Festival (31 August – 10 September 2011), directed by Marco Mueller and organized by la Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.
Damsels in Distress will have its world premiere screening Saturday September 10, in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema), following the awards Ceremony.
Damsels in Distress, written, produced and directed by Whit Stillman, is produced by Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer, and stars the new young talents of American cinema Greta Gerwig – the muse of the independent American film movement known as "Mumblecore" (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Baghead, Nights and Weekends), who also starred in the recent Greenberg and was chosen by Woody Allen for his new film Bop Decameron – and Adam Brody (In the Land of Women, Jennifer's Body, Scream 4). Also starring are Carrie MacLemore, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Analeigh Tipton, Hugo Becker, Ryan Metcalf, and Billy Magnussen.
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and produced by Westerly Film Production, Damsels in Distress is a comedy about a trio of beautiful girls as they set out to revolutionize life at a grungy American university – the dynamic leader Violet Wister (Greta Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore). They welcome transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) into their group which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers. The girls become romantically entangled with a series of men—including smooth Charlie (Adam Brody), dreamboat Xavier (Hugo Becker) and the mad frat pack of Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and Thor (Billy Magnussen)—who threaten the girls' friendship and sanity.
Damsels in Distress is Whit Stillman's fourth film as writer-director and his third in collaboration with producers Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer. His first film, Metropolitan (1990), was a hit at Sundance and the Director's Fortnight in Cannes, as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. His next two films, Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days Of Disco (1998), again won awards and positive receptions. The latter story he developed into a novel – The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterward – published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Stillman is a graduate of Harvard where he was an editor of the Harvard Crimson. After stints in book publishing and journalism he became involved in the Spanish film industry, working on and appearing in Fernando Colomo's Manhattan-set comedy Skyline. For a decade after his last film he was based in Europe, living in Paris and Madrid. He has two daughters, one in college in the States and the other studying law in Dublin.


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Latest Article|September 3, 2020|Free
::Making Grown Men Cry Since 1992
3 min read
Thursday 21"Forecasting the End" (Weather 7 p.m.) Weather Channel—which seems like it should be way more rational and calming about this sort of thing—gets into the doomsday business. Rogue planets, gamma ray bursts, methane explosion, supervolcano: Take your apocalyptic pick.Friday 22"Secret History of Gold: Revealed" (National Geographic 7 p.m.) Mankind's fascination with the glittery stuff is examined in this special spanning time, culture and economics.Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (TCM Midnight) Peter Fonda and Susan George race around California in a souped-up '66 Impala with $150,000 in stolen cash in this 1974 exploitation favorite.Saturday 23Girls with Guns (TCM 6 p.m.) TCM hands the airwaves and the ammunition over to the ladies tonight. The high-caliber fun starts with 1950's Gun Crazy and continues with 1935's Annie Oakley, 1980's Gloria and 1991's La Femme Nikita."The 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards 2013" (Nickelodeon 6 p.m.) Josh Duhamel hosts. Sorry, kids. It's better than Dane Cook. Not as good as Ryan Reynolds.Chupacabra vs. The Alamo (Syfy 7 p.m.) Just drop the mic and walk away, Syfy. You've won. You don't even have to mention that Eric Estrada is in this one. The title alone is enough.Sunday 24Phil Spector (HBO 7 p.m.) If you had to pick one actor to play looney, egotistical, record producing murderer Phil Spector in a made-for-TV biopic, it would be Al Pacino. If you had to pick one actor to play his lawyer, Linda Kenney Baden, I don't know that you'd choose Helen Mirren (mostly because you probably have no idea who Linda Kenney Baden is). But it sounds like an awesome combination, doesn't it?"Monsters and Mysteries of America" (Destination 8 p.m.) The one thing keeping us from proving the existence of Bigfoot is that there just aren't enough TV shows out there looking for him. 15 or 20 more of these suckers, and we'll be golden!Monday 25"Max Steel" (Disney XD 2 p.m.) Mattel's 2000-era G.I. Joe rip-off gets a CGI reboot."Revolution" (KOB-4 9 p.m.) The only show anybody was watching on NBC finally returns to the lineup.Tuesday 26"Prospectors" (Weather 7 p.m.) Not sure what prospecting has to do with weather, but here's another one of those get-rich-quick-style docu-reality shows. Instead of digging for gold (TLC's "Gold Rush") or oil (truTV's "Black Gold"), these folks (including a "former model") are digging for precious gems."The Definitive Guide to Aliens: How to Prepare" (Science 8 p.m.) This is just what those crazy doomsday preppers need—another loopy, purely imagined apocalypse to get ready for.Wednesday 27"The Real World: Portland" (MTV 11 p.m.) Hard to believe, but MTV's venerable reality show enters its 28th season—making it four years too old to actually appear on this show."Blade Runner: The Untold Story" (TLC 8 p.m.) Not the movie, sadly, but the crazy South African runner with no legs who killed his reality TV star girlfriend .


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Imagine what a nightmare it would be to never have a nightmare, to never again have a dream, to be banished forever from the topsy-turvy realm of sleep. Just imagine what it would be like one day to wake up and never fall asleep again, to be tortured in a twilight world of perpetual insomnia, lying in bed, exhausted but with eyes wide open, listening to the groans and whispers of the night -- sleepless, until death mercifully claims you.
It's not a lost Gothic chiller from Edgar Allen Poe but a very real, and very rare, disease called "fatal insomnia." We might have never heard of it without the medical detective work of an Italian family, which, it turns out, was stalked for centuries by a terrifying fate.
As clinical tapes show, insomnia has become an all-too waking reality for this family. But as difficult as their experience has been, it has pushed the outer boundaries of what we know about sleep and expanded our understanding of human disease itself. This family's illness might lead to breakthroughs in curing diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Dr. Ignazio Roiter: "The first person to fall ill was my wife's aunt. They said she was depressed."
Dr. Ignazio Roiter is a country doctor. His wife, Elisabetta, is a descendant of a prominent Italian family with roots in Venice since the 1600s. Roiter's medical training hadn't prepared him for the sad and puzzling ailment that was suddenly overtaking Elizabetta's aunt, a woman in her 40s.
Dr. Roiter: "She appeared to be sleeping all the time, but then she claimed she had insomnia. The doctors were confused."
Sleeping pills were useless. The two could only watch in horror as the aunt's health deteriorated. After a few months she could no longer walk, even speaking was an effort.
Dr. Roiter: "The disease progresses very rapidly. Death comes suddenly."
The aunt was dead one year after the onset of her mysterious sleepless condition. Then a year later, in 1979, it struck again. A second aunt became suddenly sleepless.
Elisabetta: "The symptoms were the same. Exactly the same."
Dennis Murphy: "This has to be terrifying."
Elisabetta: "It was shocking at first."
The mind of both women remained crisp as their bodies failed them.
Dr. Roiter: "That's the worst aspect of the disease."
The second aunt died in 1979, a year after the first. What had struck them down? The medical experts were perplexed, but Elisabetta's mother remembered vaguely seeing the dreadful symptoms before. It happened to Elizabetta's grandfather in 1944. He too had been cursed by the waking nightmare, sleepless, then quickly dead.
Elisabetta: "We started to understand that there was a hereditary disease in our family."
Dr. Roiter, desperate to find a diagnosis and a cure, turned to the dusty record books of the local church where the births and deaths in Elizabetta's family had been dutifully recorded down through cobwebbed generations. He was like a cop working a cold case back through time. And he was finding clues, causes of death listed as "epilepsy," "fever," and "mental illness". A vague pattern was emerging.
Gradually, he built a family tree and encountered long-lost family members who told him that yes, they remembered relatives dying of the nameless affliction. But Dr. Roiter needed stronger clinical evidence of a family link. His search brought him here to an island off Venice, San Servolo, the site of Europe's first mental asylum. Some of his wife's ancestors had been warehoused here, and like hundreds of other patients, observed and catalogued. He found ancestors' medical records, and compelling evidence.
Murphy: "Confusion, apathy. So this is years before the diagnosis, but doctors are observing these same traits."
Dr. Roiter: "Yes."
There it was in the yellowed records. Elizabetta's ancestors had been dying of sleeplessness for centuries. Now Dr. Roiter had to convince the medical establishment that he had stumbled across a new, family-borne disease -- his own family's disease. But before his investigation could continue, its urgency was made apparent when Elisabetta's Uncle Silvano came for a visit
Dr. Roiter: "He seemed depressed, anxious. His behavior changed, his character changed."
Elisabetta's uncle agreed to be examined. He was determined to help them find a cure
Elisabetta: "He said, do it quickly. He knew he was going to die within a short time."
Dr. Roiter: "I wanted to save him."
Dr. Roiter contacted Dr. Elio Lugaresi, a world-renowned sleep expert, in Bologna, Italy.
Dr. Elio Lugaresi: "I realized immediately that this might be an important case."
Uncle Silvano was admitted to the clinic in the spring of 1984.
Dr. Lugaresi: "I'd studied sleep for more than 30 years and I'd never seen anything like it!"
Over several months Dr. Lugaresi videotaped Uncle Silvano's decline.
Tapes recorded his semi-awake state. His eyes rarely stay closed. Then after 6 months, he begins miming in his half-dreams - combing his hair, buttoning his shirt. Though he may look conscious, he isn't. He's lost in a passageway between sleep and the wakeful world. In time, he finds it difficult to walk. Insomnia caused his body to shut down and he died, exhausted, at 52.
His brain was removed, sped through customs and rushed to a specialist in America.
Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti: "If we had lost that brain, we would have lost the key to the understanding of the disease."
The brain was delivered intact to Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti, a neuropathologist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He studied it and found that it was full of small holes - like a sponge. It looked suspiciously similar to the brain of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jacob, the human form of mad cow disease.
Dr. Gambetti: "It gave us really a direction we're to move to try to identify the type of disease we are dealing with."
The doctor in Cleveland contacted a scientist in Los Angeles who'd done ground-breaking work on the transmission of disease.
Dr. Stanley Pruisner, the California scientist, believed that some diseases are caused by proteins in our brains. Abnormal proteins can hijack healthy proteins that in turn declare war on other proteins in the brain – a whole new system of infection that leads to death. But it was just an unproven theory.
Labwork on Uncle Silvano's brain turned out to be the key that researchers had been looking for, their proof. Uncle Silvano, indeed all of Elizabetta's sleepless relatives and ancestors, had died of a hereditary disease caused by rogue protein disorder in the brain.
In 1997 Dr. Prusiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of rogue protein disorders. His discovery was partly the result of an Italian country doctor's crusade to cure his family
But diagnosing the disease wasn't curing it. As Dr. Gambetti in Cleveland continued his research into fatal familial insomnia, he actually located the genetic mutation in Elizabetta's line that causes the disease. He tested 50 members of the Italian family and found that 50 percent of them were carriers. Carrying the mutated gene doesn't mean that it will bloom into the fatal insomnia but if it does, no cure is known.
Now those onetime long-list family members reunited by Dr. Roiter's medical detective work face an awful dilemma. They've seen fathers disintegrate before their eyes, and their loved ones turned into sleepless zombies.
Elizabetta's distant cousin Lucia has lost her father, an uncle and a sister to the disease.
Murphy: "Lucia, the doctors would be able to say with some precision whether or not you or your family member have it or don't have it. It's an awful decision. Would you want to know, or not know?"
Lucia: "No, I wouldn't want to know it. My aim in life is to find a cure, fund research."
Some scientists predict a cure will be found within the next 10 or 15 years. And scientists believe that a cure for fatal familial insomnia, rare as it is, may open the door to cures for other rogue protein diseases, and similar maladies like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Lucia: "My strength comes from the people who've died. Wherever they are now, they help me along this road, which won't cure them anymore, but will help people in the future. We've lost some battles, but I haven't lost the war."
It's a war for a cure that would allow this family and others always to be able to sleep, perchance to dream. Perchance to live.
In recent years, 27 other families around the world have been found to be carriers of fatal familial insomnia, five of those in the United States. The Roiters' extended family has formed an association to help find a cure, and raise the money for research.


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October 6
Life of the Saint
The Holy Apostle Thomas, also called Didymus, was born in Judea. His parents were poor but they passed on to him a great love for the Law of Moses. When he was still young, he drew apart from the noisy games of his companions to devote himself to reading and meditating upon the Scriptures. His knowledge of God's word and well-disposed conscience enabled him, without hesitation to recognize Christ as the Messiah spoken of by the Prophets and to follow him as soon as He called him. He left his boat and his nets and became one of the Twelve. He was persecuted, excluded and stoned by the Jews, yet followed the Savior everywhere with such burning zeal that when Christ took the road for Jerusalem to offer himself for those who were going to kill him, Thomas said to the other disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him (John 11:16).
When the Savior of the world had overcome death by rising from the tomb, He appeared to his disciples who were assembled with the doors shut for fear of the Jews; He showed them the marks of his Passion upon his body, and the disciples were filled with joy. God so provided that Thomas was not then with them and, when the others told him they had seen the Lord risen from the dead, he was unwilling to believe them. In his great patience and forbearance, the Lord appeared again to his disciples a week later, and asked Thomas to certify that He was well and truly risen from the dead in the flesh; He told him to put his finger into the holes in his hands left by the nails and to thrust his hand into his side pierced by the spear. In admonishing Thomas for his lack of faith, the Savior showed that we too are called upon to thrust our hands into his side, not physically but spiritually, to quench our thirst there at the well-spring of grace (cf. John 20:19-29).
Thomas was with the other Apostles when, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down upon their heads in the form of tongues of fire. He was filled, like the rest, with the power from on High for the proclamation of the world's Salvation; and, when the Apostles went their separate ways, it fell to Thomas to bring the Glad Tidings to the distant lands of the Medes and Parthians (Iran), and as far as India.
Orthodox Christian Celebration of the Feast of Saint Thomas
The feast and commemoration of Saint Thomas is celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom which is conducted on the morning of the feast and preceded by a Matins (Orthros) service. A Great Vespers may be conducted on the evening before the day of the Feast.
Scripture readings for the feast are the following: At the Divine Liturgy: I Corinthians 4:9-16; John 20: 19-31. (If the feast falls on a Sunday the Gospel readings may vary.)
Hymns of the Feast
Apolytikion (Third Tone)
O Holy Apostle Thomas, intercede with the merciful God that He grant unto our souls forgiveness of offences.
Kontakion (Fourth Tone)
Christ's Apostle, who was filled with God's divine grace, he who was His genuine and faithful servant in all truth, all-lauded Thomas exclaimed aloud in deep repentance: Thou art both my God and Lord.
Adapted from The Synaxarion: The Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church, Vol. 1, compiled by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra and translated from the French by Christopher Hookway (Chalkidike, Greece: Holy Convent of the Annunciation of Our Lady, 1998) pp. 299-301.Apolytikion and Kontakion courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery.


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A Bug's Life has a bit of a reputation as the red-headed stepchild in the Pixar catalog, but the film remains, more than a decade later, irresistable to kids and pleasing to adults. The story back in 1998 was how Disney's mortal competitor DreamWorks had produced their own CGI-animated bug picture—Antz—and released it weeks before A Bug's Life in a fit of corporate espionage. While Antz has its own charms, it's A Bug's Life that's sure to endure as a superb children's entertainment.
Directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton (who also contributed greatly to its writing), A Bug's Life concerns the denizens of Ant Island, an idyllic community of anthills marred only by seasonal visits from a bullying grasshopper named Hopper (Kevin Spacey). When the well-meaning but klutzy local inventor Flik (Dave Foley) inadvertently loses Ant Island's offering for Hopper, the Queen (Phyllis Diller) and neurotic Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) deal with the crisis by redoubling the ant's hive-mind work ethic and sending Flik on a fool's errand beyond the island in search of help. The highly motivated Flik, of course, takes his job seriously. Encountering P.T. Flea's Circus, he mistakes the performers for a band of warriors and enlists them to return with him to fend off the grasshoppers.
It's the Seven Samurai for kids (and a year later, Galaxy Quest would use the same twist of actors mistaken for heroes). The animation is somewhat of a mixed bag, but for the time, it was certainly state of the art. The imagery excels in sunnily recreating vistas and plant life, the character designs—such as those of the circus performers—are mostly top-notch, and the pastel color scheme makes a movie about bugs inviting. The only problem is the plasticine appearance of the ants themselves: it's a given that they had to be cute, but in their limited expression and texture, they're constant reminders of what we're missing from hand-drawn animation.
One unassailable element of A Bug's Life is its brilliant voice work, perfect from top to bottom. The supporting cast includes a wee Hayden Panettiere as ant child Dot, David Hyde Pierce as walking stick Slim, Denis Leary as the butch but feminine-looking male ladybug Francis, Brad Garrett as rhino beetle Dim, animator Joe Ranft as German caterpillar Heimlich, Lost in Space's Jonathan Harris as the theatrical praying mantis Manny, Madeline Kahn as Manny's gypsy moth wife Gypsy, Bonnie Hunt as black widow spider Rosie, Michael McShane as twin pill bugs Tuck and Roll, Pixar good-luck-charm John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea, Richard Kind as Hopper's brother Molt, Edie McClurg as ant Doctor Flora, and Roddy McDowall, in his last role, as ant councilman Mister Soil. Capping it all off are a warm and peppy Oscar-nominated score by Randy Newman (who also contributes the song "The Time of Your Life") and the innovative comic touch of fabricated "outtakes," animated bloopers inserted into the end-credit roll.
Buena Vista delivers a definitive special edition for A Bug's Life in its Blu-Ray debut. The A/V quality is stunning, presenting the film in its sharpest clarity to reveal fresh new detail and texture. The color is vibrant, and every Pixar pixel is in its place. Sound comes in a robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that simply can't be beat for its separation and subtlety (and power) in conveying the aural nuances and thunderous action of the film.
Taken together, the bonus features provide a complete history of the film and an inviting behind-the-scenes sense of the Pixar family at work. First, there's an audio commentary by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich that offers a great narrative version of the film's creation that specifies production details in a screen-specific manner.
The beautiful and funny CGI short "Geri's Game" (4:54, HD) is here in full HD. We also get a fantastic "Filmmakers' Roundtable" (20:58, HD)—with John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Darla Anderson and Kevin Reher—that focuses on all of the best anecdotes about the film's production and reception, including taking the film to Camp David to show it to President Clinton.
"A Bug's Life: The First Draft" (10:18, HD) comes with an "Introduction by John Lasseter" (:33, HD). Dave Foley narrates pre-production art to show an alternate, discarded version of the story.
The classic short that partly inspired A Bug's Life, "A Walt Disney Silly Symphony: 'Grasshopper and the Ants'" (8:27, HD), comes with an "Introduction by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton" (:35, SD).
A Pre-Production section includes the "Fleabie Reel," "Story and Editorial," "Storyboard-to-Film Comparison," "Abandoned Sequences," and "Research Documentary," all with Intros.
A Design section presents Galleries of production and concept art, also with an Intro.
The Production section includes "Behind the Scenes of A Bug's Life - Production Feature Documentary" (3:30, SD), "Voice Casting," "Early Tests," "Story Reel" (with Intro), "Layout" (with Intro), "Animation" (with Intro), and "Shaders and Lighting" (with Intro).
There's also a "Sound Design Featurette" (13:11, HD) and a Release gallery with Posters/Ad Campaigns, two Trailers, and Character Interviews (with Intro).
Lastly, both sets of Outtakes (2:28 each, HD) are here, along with "The Story Behind the Outtakes" (3:49, SD), a brief featurette explaining their origin.
Self-respecting animation lovers and, I would think, most parents, shouldn't hesitate to add this disc to their collections.
Review gear: |
Panasonic Viera TC-P55VT30 55" Plasma 1080p 3D HDTV
Oppo BDP-93 Universal Network 3D Blu-ray Disc Player
Denon AVR2112CI Integrated Network A/V Surround Receiver
Pioneer SP-BS41-LR Bookshelf Speaker (2)
Pioneer SP-C21 Center Speaker
Pioneer SW-8 Subwoofer


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Ernest Moore, an audiologist and cell biologist at Northwestern University, developed tinnitus -- a chronic ringing and whooshing sound in his ears -- twenty years ago after serving in the U.S. Army reserves medical corps. His hearing was damaged by the crack of too many M16 rifles and artillery explosions. He suspects his hearing also suffered from hunting opossum with rifles as a kid on his grandmother's farm in Tennessee.
Ever since his ears began ringing, Moore has been researching a cure. He's at the forefront of just a small band of such scientists in the country. There's a lot riding on his work.
Half of the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan exposed to explosive devices suffer from tinnitus. The major cause is exposure to loud noises, which can damage and destroy hair cells of the inner ear. It's the number one war-related disability.
Nearly 400,000 troops collected disability for service-related tinnitus in 2006, which cost $539 million in 2006. The number climbs nearly 20 percent each year. It could hit $1 billion by 2011, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
An additional 12 million Americans have tinnitus severe enough to seek medical attention. In about two million of those cases, patients are so debilitated they can't function normally.
Despite the widespread suffering, there has only been a paltry $3 million allotted for public and private research. As a tinnitus researcher, Moore feels like a cross between Rodney Dangerfield and Sisyphus.
It's been tough to snare research money from the small purse and hard to garner respect for tinnitus. "Ears don't bleed from tinnitus," Moore explained. "It's a hidden problem. It's not obvious and dramatic like a heart attack or cancer -- although it torments its sufferers." Only one out of ten grant proposals he submits each year have been funded.
The research itself is challenging because Moore can't ask mice and rats if their ears are ringing. Now, he's working with zebrafish (yes, they do have ears, which are remarkably similar to humans' ears.) He's been able to cause ringing in their ears -- he thinks -- by exposing them to certain drugs and tracking their erratic swimming on video. Moore then looks at the cells in their ears to see if the electrical firing has increased, an early sign of damage and tinnitus. His early findings show an increased firing.
Then Moore attempts to block this effect with drugs to return the cells to their normal activity. In preliminary research, it appears the drugs he has tested do slow down the increased electrical firing or tinnitus-like behavior of the hair cells in the ear.
Moore is beginning to meet with doctors to discuss launching a clinical trial to test these drugs for patients with tinnitus.
"If these drugs are found to be safe -- and some are already on the market for other uses -- and if they are found to have efficacy in humans, then they might be used to treat an individual's tinnitus," Moore said.
"If the hair cell is not totally damaged -- just beginning to break down, and you administer these drugs, you might be able to prevent it from further damage and interfere with the cells' ability to generate tinnitus," he explained.
Tinnitus finally will begin to get some respect in April when The Department of Defense 2008 Appropriations Bill will open up $50 million in new research funding for tinnitus related to service in the armed forces. Ernest Moore has applied to launch the clinical trial with the drugs he has used with the zebrafish.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Northwestern University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Sentera brings a new level of control to users with the Phoenix 2 Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), launched today. The Phoenix 2 is lightweight and highly durable, and may be the most precise drone available today, claims Sentera in its latest press release announcing the new UAS.
"The Phoenix 2 brings a level of precision and accuracy to UAVs that hasn't been seen before," said Todd Colten, chief aerospace engineer for Sentera. "Users can now collect highly detailed data quickly, and with complete certainty about its accuracy." Colten went on to describe the professional-grade autopilot: "The grid pattern you specify is mapped pre-flight. The drone knows exactly what line to follow to get the exact looping radius, and the exact flight level needed for perfect tiling."
At only four pounds, the Phoenix 2 is easily hand-launched in just a few steps, and can carry multiple sensor options for up to an hour of flight time. The professional-grade autopilot is part of what makes the precision possible. It constantly auto-calculates and auto-optimizes according to the grid pattern specified to ensure the data collected meets exact specifications.
"Growers are using the Phoenix 2 with agriculture-specific sensors to collect RGB, NIR, and NDVI imagery. That imagery is so precise – [the growers] tell us they're targeting and treating specific parts of their fields, and then they're using fewer chemicals, saving money and increasing yields," continued Colten. "Follow-up flights can be programmed to use the same pattern for exact data comparison at multiple times throughout the growing season. We're getting great feedback from our customers."
Phoenix 2 Attributes
- Payload Solutions: The Phoenix 2 is a highly-versatile UAV that accepts multiple sensors, including the Sentera Double 4K Sensor, providing true RGB and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data in a single flight. The Sentera Quad Sensor, a multi-spectral six-band imager with red edge capabilities is also popular in agriculture applications. Other compatible mapping sensors include the Sentera-Q for high-resolution orthomaps and the Radiometric Thermal Sensor, which quickly builds high-resolution true temperature maps. Sentera also offers EO and IR gimbaled payloads for live video public safety missions.
- Precision: Up to a 60-minute endurance and cruise speed of 30 mph, the Phoenix 2 is capable of covering broad areas that other UAVs of the same size cannot. The highly reliable and accurate Kestrel OnBoard autopilot ensure images are captured with precise, even spacing and overlap that is auto-calculated and can be adjusted by the user at the click of a button.
- Ease-of-Use: Effortlessly hand-launched in just a few steps, the four-pound Phoenix 2 flies autonomously on a predetermined flight pattern that can be updated during flight by accessing the easy-to-use ground station software. Upon completion, the Phoenix 2 automatically returns to safely land.
- End-to-End Solution: The Phoenix 2 includes the aircraft, ground station, transportation cases, batteries, chargers, and software with multiple training options available. Sentera offers a wide variety of sensors, ensuring every application has the perfect imagery solution. Sentera's AgVault and OnTop Open Software Platforms manage the multitude of images and data collected during flight, and allow near-real time reading and analysis of the data, including working with other data sources via APIs.
Visit http://www.sentera.com/phoenix-2 to learn more about Sentera's Phoenix 2 UAV.


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Congratulations to the members and team captain of Kiva Lending Team Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics,Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious . We are thrilled to announce that for the first time in Kiva-history, a lending team has reached $3 million in loans! Earlier this year Pete the team captain had set the goal of $3 million in loans by the end of 2010, great execution on reaching this milestone before the end of this year!
The Lending Team consists of 12,498 lenders, who have made over 98,715 loans! We want to thank all of the team members for their dedication and support of Kiva entrepreneurs!


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Biological Sciences Division
Staff Awards & Honors
May 2013
Review Article Puts Low-Dose Radiation Biology Controversy into Perspective
Noted radiation biologists summarize current research issues, suggest path forward
Dr. William Bair
A review of the current issues in low-dose radiation research authored by two radiation biologists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is the cover story of the May 2013 issue of Radiation Research. The review, by Laboratory Fellow Dr. William F. Morgan and retired PNNL scientist Dr. William J. Bair, highlights critical areas of controversy in low-dose radiation biology, and suggests areas of future research to address these issues.
In "Issues in Low Dose Radiation Biology: The Controversy Continues. A Perspective," the authors reiterate that exposure to ionizing radiation, both natural and man-made, is a fact of life. The Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in 2011; the debate over the future of nuclear power; and the increasing use of radiation in medicine, agriculture, the military, national security, research, and industry has focused attention on health and safety issues associated with potential exposures to low-dose, low-dose-rate ionizing radiation.
The target audience of the article is interested investigators. However, Morgan and Bair believe it will help government regulators, policy makers, and funding agencies understand why this is a critical time to address concerns associated with low-dose radiation exposures and the nations ability to deal with them in a rational, scientifically based manner.
Morgan, who has had a long-term interest in the biological effects of radiation exposure, leads the U.S. Department of Energy's Low Dose Radiation Scientific Focus Area Program at PNNL. He also provides scientific leadership in research on the effects of radiation exposure to human health and is an advisor and representative for agencies such as the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), the National Council for Radiation Protection (NCRP) and the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board Radiation Advisory Committee.
Bair is a noted radiation biologist and E.O. Lawrence Award winner whose research has focused on the health effects of radionuclides, particularly in respect to deposition in the respiratory tract. He has chaired DOE committees concerned with potential plutonium-caused health effects, was a member of a National Academy of Sciences committee on "hot particles," and was vice chairman of the committee on Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation, Alpha Radiation (BIER IV). Bair has served on committees of the ICRP and NCRP. He retired from PNNL in 1994 as manager of the Life Sciences Center.
Reference: Morgan WF and WJ Bair. 2013. "Issues in Low Dose Radiation Biology: The Controversy Continues. A Perspective." Radiation Research 179, 501-510. DOI: 10.1667/RR3306.1


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Ghostfaced shredder John 5 (born John William Lowery) has proved his soloing abilities with a series of instrumental guitar albums; sideman duties with the likes of Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and David Lee Roth; and session gigs with artists as diverse as Ricky Martin and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Telecaster addict 5 is obviously a hugely adaptable player but he has two distinct personalities as a musician that mark him out from most other rock guitarists. One is his role as a blisteringly fast metal bruiser; the other, a gifted country/bluegrass picker.
MusicRadar caught up with 5 during his recent UK tour with Rob Zombie, in support of the Hellbilly Deluxe 2 record, to talk guitar solos. That is, playing solos and feeling their influence. Speaking of the latter, it turns out that John got his first taste of rock soloing courtesy of a stone cold classic...
"I was such a big Kiss and Van Halen fan, Yngwie Malmsteen, Racer X... all that stuff," says John. "I loved everybody. I just love music and great guitar players. But the first solo I can remember that I was like, 'wow, this is awesome' was Heartbreaker by Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin II, 1969).
"I remember it was so difficult because I was so little and it was such a stretch. I probably learned it when I was 11. Well, I didn't learn the whole thing just... (sings the first few notes)."
As it happens, the pre-pubescent 5 wasn't the only shredder in the making who fell under the spell of Page's legendary improvised solo. Back in 1998, Steve Vai told Guitar World magazine that Heartbreaker had 'the biggest impact on him' when he was a kid. "It was defiant, bold, and edgier than hell. It really is the definitive rock guitar solo."
John 5 was soon to feel the impact of another brilliant soloist, Eddie Van Halen, and a recording that went off like a neutron bomb in the late '70s.
"Of course, Eruption (Van Halen, 1978)," says 5. "I think it's the tone and how it was attacked that makes it great. I'm not a big tone chaser but Eddie definitely is. Maybe I should be, but, as Eddie says, I think a lot of the tone comes from your hands. I just prefer to play guitar. That's my thing."
Speaking of the shred side of his playing, here's a turnip for the books. John was also influenced by Strat-wrangling super Swede Yngwie Malmsteen. "I think Far Beyond The Sun (Rising Force, 1984) is a great solo," says John before acknowledging another brilliant '80s shred master.
"Then there's The Attitude Song by Steve Vai. In fact, the Eat 'Em And Smile album (David Lee Roth featuring Steve Vai, 1986) has some of the greatest guitar solos ever. That whole album is very live."
Eat 'Em And Smile does indeed feature some fantastic solos from Vai. The long-fingered genius kills on tracks like Goin' Crazy and Ladies' Nite In Buffalo, proving that serious shredding and good taste can co-exist.
John 5 would get his opportunity to follow in Vai's footsteps when he recorded and played with Roth between 1998 and 2003. Typically, he wasn't content to copy his predecessor's lead style.
"I can play Steve's solos like they are on the record, but they are already there, you know? So I tried to do something totally different. When I started playing professionally I thought to myself, 'well, there's already an Yngwie, an Eddie Van Halen and a Steve Vai. How am I going to be different from these players?' Well, people said, 'try to do your own thing.'"
It was this need to develop his own style that lead 5 to appreciate the work of old school country players and then incorporate that influence into his own lead playing.
"I love Jimmy Bryant and I love Albert Lee," says John. "Roy Clark. Chet Atkins. I love those pickers. That's a whole other world. It's shredding; it's fast; it's tough to do. I like a challenge."
Like John says, guys like fleet fingered genius Jimmy Bryant, the first guy to endorse the Telecaster, were the original shredders. His rapid soloing, in an age before distortion and light gauge strings, on tracks like 1954's Stratosphere Boogie with steel guitarist Speedy West (his was not just a clever nickname either) is still awe inspiring. It's the perfect collision between melody and speed. Which is an apt description of the solo that 5 is particularly fond of from his own back catalogue.
"There's a song called Steel Guitar Rag on The Art of Malice (2010)," replies 5. "I was like 'wow, that really came out good!' Actually, there's also one called Behind The Nut Love off of my solo record Vertigo (2004). I'd say I play 80% of it behind the nut of the guitar."
As its moniker suggests, the 'behind the nut technique' involves bending guitar strings in the area between the top nut and the machineheads... or the headstock if you want to get technical. The technique, which is best performed on a Telecaster, is most associated with country players like Jerry Donahue and Roy Buchanan but others like Jimmy Page have also been known to bend, as it were.
Behind the nut bending produces a pedal steel effect and can be used to simulate the role of a vibrato on a hard-tail guitar. 5's Behind The Nut Love is a prime example of just how beautiful the technique can sound in the right hands. It's not just for country music...
"It's in an open D tuning (low to high: D, A, D, F#, A, D)," says 5 of the song. "It's a tough technique. I do a lot of that, even in the Rob Zombie stuff. I just try to go outside the box. In fact, I go outside the box so much I go... 'what box!'"
When asked what it was that excited him about the soloing of guys like Vai, Malmsteen, Van Halen and the original country set, John replies honestly, "I think it was the technique." So, does that mean that a solo has to be a note fest to grab his attention?
"Not at all," he states before dropping an MOR-shaped bombshell. "In fact, there's a Bryan Adams song, it's that one from the Robin Hood soundtrack [(Everything I Do) I Do It For You released in 1991, natch]. What a solo in that! It's so melodic.
"Then there's Jeff Beck's solo in People Get Ready (Flash, 1985). The solo would just kill you! Actually, most of the stuff I do outside of my instrumental records is like that although there is a song on my Art of Malice record called Can I Live Again and it's very like David Gilmour."
While he has the ability to keep his soloing simple for session dates, when he's recording his own stuff John likes to push himself as a musician. For instance, any guitarist who has ever tried to double track even a simple riff will know just how hard it is to play the same part exactly the same twice. Right? Well, John 5 took double tracking to the extreme.
"I did that for the whole The Devil Knows My Name record (2007)," says John. "I double tracked everything and it's one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. It was crazy! I had this producer, his name is Sid Riggs. I doubled one solo and he thought it sounded so good he was like 'right, we gotta double everything.'
"It was tough because you can't be out of tune or out of time. It's got to be perfect and that's tough at that speed. It took twice as long. I would nail each solo after a while but it was a challenge. I love a challenge."
Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe 2, featuring John 5, is out now.


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Thai Sticky Rice Set (Sticky rice, Steaming pot, Steaming basket, Serving container) is a complete set. It is all you need to cook sticky rice. In this set you will receive an aluminum steaming pot size 22cm., one bag of Thai Sticky Rice 5lb., one Sticky Rice Steaming Basket, and one of the Sticky Rice Serving container. Product of Thailand.
Sticky Rice Set (Rice, Pot, Basket, Container)
- Brand: Thailand
- Product Code: 91101
- Availability: In Stock


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By default, please get the new TL by doing a new installation instead of proceeding here. You don't need to remove an existing installation.
That is, you should have a specific reason to do an upgrade instead of a new install, and you should be familiar with Unix and TeX Live. If you have any doubts whatsoever, please do a new installation.
We do not provide a dedicated upgrade script. The procedure here is not bullet-proof, or recommended; consider it provided as-is, to be used at your own risk, if you want to do so, for reasons of your own. It's your responsibility to understand what is being done. Failing any of that, please do a new installation.
These instructions say nothing about what is done as root or as a normal user; that's because TeX Live installations are done both ways (root is not required for anything in TL itself), and we can't know which you chose. You need to know. If you don't, do a new installation.
Good luck, and to reiterate from the top, don't do any of this if it doesn't make sense to you. Just do a fresh installation.
There is no comparable upgrade procedure for Windows. Doing a new installation is necessary.


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Twista Seven Day Hustle текст песни, слова песни Seven Day Hustle Twista & Toxic
Twista - Seven Day Hustle
feat. Toxic
[Intro: Twista]
Uhh, yeah, ay
Sellin this here dope on these streets
It's a seven day thang, knowhatI'mtalkinbout?
We out here all day e'ry day hustlin
Yo Toxic, tell 'em what we talkin 'bout
Check it out
[Chorus: Toxic (Twista)]
Call my connect {"On Monday"}
(What you got? Now what you got for me?)
I pick it up {"On a Tuesday"} yeah
(Bring it back, now bring it back for me)
Ohh, I cook it up on {"On Wednesday"}
(Go to the kitchen, get the pots, hit the stove nigga)
Shut them niggaz down {"On a Thursday yeah"}
(Y'all can't serve around here, you gotta go nigga)
Yeah, we on the tip {"Come Friday"} yeah
(Cash them checks, uhh, we on the set, uhh)
Police tried to sweat me {"That Saturday"}
(They let us go we hit the sto' then hit the club nigga)
We still tippin {"On Sunday"} yeah
(Seven days a week, that's how we do it cause we gots to eat)
The rap for the hood, if you want 'em I gram 'em
I'm Twista, I came back with the hustler's anthem
And these are crack hooks that I spit, I hope my customers chant 'em
Spit for niggaz in Caprises that can't pull up in the Phantom
That's real – like rocks and blows when I'm rockin them shows
On the blocks with them O's when I'm droppin them flows, cockin the low
When the Twista hit the scene and that's like BLAKA explode
These lyrics to the tracks is like workin them pots on the stove
That's real
[Hook: Twista]
I got cocaine if you really wanna {"buy buy"}
I got ounces if you really wanna {"buy buy"}
I got 'dro if you really wanna {"buy buy"}
Rocks blows if you really wanna {"buy buy"}
Give me a look-up, I got the good hook up on cook up
If you low I'll front you to try to help you get a foot up
Police on my ass so I had to move a little bit quicker before I get shook up
Shit it's all the way I had to book up
Makin money for my good ki with a good cut
I spit that Cali kush, in the alley you can push
And the ki I stay low-key so Detective O'Malley won't look
Everybody be watchin my shows, everybody be rockin my flows
Got yayo and that's the way shit goes nigga, O's nigga
[Hook x2]
[Interlude: Toxic]
It's a seven day thing man
We do it all week e'ry week, we hustlin
Let me tell you how it goes again, aight?
[Hook: echoes at the end]


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Generally speaking, well testing is the responsibility of the homeowner. There may be exceptions on a case-by-case basis. The Environmental Laboratory has a list of private laboratories that can be used. Contact the Laboratory Supervisor, Christopher Baggett, at (301) 600-1597 to be referred to a local private laboratory.
Show All Answers
The Division of Water and Sewer Utilities Environmental Laboratory and Drinking Water Operators collect water samples to use as a snapshot of the water quality in the neighborhood of sampling. The results of the sampling are sent to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) which maintains water system compliance. Water samples taken in neighborhoods are instrumental in maintaining excellent water quality.
The Frederick County Environmental Laboratory does not perform any lead and copper testing in the County schools. This testing is performed by independent reference laboratories.
Let the oil cool, then pour into an empty can to solidify, then throw into the trash for final disposal.
Baby wipes, either soiled or clean, should NEVER be flushed down a toilet. Only dispose of the wipes in a trash can.


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A Weinstein Company email that appears to skirt AMPAS campaign rules by using a third party to reach Oscar voters has stirred up anger among Academy members and rival campaigners.
But the email does not violate Academy regulations, AMPAS COO Ric Robertson told TheWrap on Tuesday. One of the organization's campaign rules, he said, "allows for media entities to send such things to valid subscribers who've opted into being a subscriber."
The email in question, which went out on Tuesday morning, is not part of Weinstein's aggressive Best Picture campaign on behalf of "The Artist," but instead promotes Meryl Streep's Best Actress candidacy for "The Iron Lady."
It was sent as a third-party advertisement by the Hollywood Reporter's parent company, Prometheus Global Media, to THR subscribers, some of whom are Academy members.
Headed "From: The Weinstein Company: The Iron Lady," its subject line reads "Exclusive Meryl Streep Video."
The email contains a "for your consideration" ad with an embedded link. The ad is headed with a Thelma Adams quote – "It's been TWENTY-NINE YEARS SINCE MERYL STREEP WON AN OSCAR and she certainly deserves to win for her performance in 'The Iron Lady'!" – and then contains a link to a video interview with Streep on the Weinstein website.
The interview is moderated by Pete Hammond, who mentions the 29-year gap in his introduction and says, "Something has to be done about that!"
Weinstein Company COO David Glasser responded: "We are surprised that a media outlet like TheWrap, which normally has journalistic integrity, would print the strange accusation of an anonymous competitor and use this as a direct broadside against Variety and The Hollywood Reporter." (The ad also was also sent from Variety.)
He added: "Not only are the Variety and Hollywood Reporter campaigns legal from an Academy standpoint, but they will be used by a number of different studios in the days ahead. It seems that every time TWC is innovative there is always some jealous competitor who… comes out of the woodwork."
Academy campaign rule number four specifically prohibits emails that "extol the merits of a film, an achievement or an individual," emails that contain references to past awards, and links to websites that promote an eligible film.
Rule five adds that references or links to websites are only allowed if the website contains basic screening information, with no promotion or "photographic, audio, video, graphical and other multimedia elements."
The email would clearly violate both rules if it were sent from Weinstein directly to Academy members. But because it went to THR's subscribers, many of whom are not Oscar voters, the email was legal under Academy campaign rules.
What likely bothered some Academy members, several of whom contacted TheWrap after receiving the email, is that initially the message appears to be directly from Weinstein.
Prometheus is only mentioned at the bottom of the email, below the TWC name and address. A line reads, "You are on the Prometheus Global Media, LLC Email list," and after an opt-out link adds, "Prometheus … is not responsible for the products or services presented in this message."
Some of the anger over the email appears directed at TWC's extensive campaign tactics; some can no doubt be attributed to annoyance with the company's success with Oscar voters, who seem likely to give TWC its second consecutive Best Picture winner this year.
Said Glasser: "This is the biggest non-story of the year."


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By: Creighton | H.C.R. No. 50 |
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the | ||
United States reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the | ||
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the | ||
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"; | ||
and | ||
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of | ||
federal power as being that specifically granted by the | ||
Constitution of the United States and no more; and | ||
WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment | ||
means that the federal government was created by the states | ||
specifically to be an agent of the states; and | ||
WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated | ||
as agents of the federal government; and | ||
WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the | ||
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and | ||
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of | ||
the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union | ||
of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal | ||
government may not usurp; and | ||
WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says, | ||
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a | ||
Republican Form of Government," and the Ninth Amendment states that | ||
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not | ||
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people"; | ||
and | ||
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New | ||
York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that congress may not | ||
simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the | ||
states; and | ||
WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations | ||
and some now pending from the present administration and from | ||
congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; | ||
now, therefore, be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the | ||
Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise | ||
enumerated and granted to the federal government by the | ||
Constitution of the United States; and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal | ||
government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective | ||
immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these | ||
constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that | ||
directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal | ||
penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation | ||
or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it | ||
further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the | ||
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the | ||
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this | ||
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. |


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JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND — Several people were shot early on Sunday morning in the Pavonia/Newport PATH station in downtown Jersey City, according to various reports.
PATH service was suspended between Hoboken and Journal Square after the incident, which apparently took place around 5:30 a.m.
According to media reports, two people bumped into each other inside the train. One person reportedly started shooting, and the commotion spilled onto the platform. Apparently, another person may have also fired a gun.
The number and condition of victims was unknown, with some reports saying as many as three people may have been wounded.
The closure came at an inopportune time for fans heading to the final day of the Barclays golf tournament in Jersey City. However, the light rail train was cross honoring tickets.
The last two months in Jersey City have been unusually violent, with a spate of shootings and gun deaths that so far has defied explanation. Eight murders have occurred since the end of June. Until this summer, the murder rate had been declining in the city.


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Thomson Reuters Launches Block Trading Service, Tapping AutEx Network
Citing the problem of fragmentation in U.S. equities,Thomson Reuters today announced the launch of a new block trading service to help brokers discover liquidity for their buy-side clients.
Built upon the company's AutEx and AutEx Trade route products, the block-trading service is tapping into the community of 750 buy-side firms who have access to over 700 executing brokers to find counterparties to their block orders. "We had this deep network out there with all sorts of latent block liquidity," said Hegarty.
Today, these 700 sell side firms are sending indications of interest (IOIs) — prices for which they will buy or sell equities – over the AutEx network to 750 buy-side institutions. After the orders are executed, the sell side advertises the trades via AutEx as well.
Now Thomson Reuters is attempting to leverage that community and connectivity to turn those IOIs into transactions. "We're allowing them to take those capabilities to actually execute on the block trades," said Hegarty. "Our clients have been asking us to take it (AutEx) to the next level," said Hegarty.
Finding Block Liquidity – A Persistent Problem
Over the past few years, fragmentation, shrinking volumes, coupled with the decline in trade size from algorithmic trading have made it more difficult for the buy side to execute blocks. A number of existing block trading systems in U.S. equities are focused on the block-trading problem. Thomson Reuters is moving onto the turf of existing block trading ATSs like Liquidnet, ITG's POSIT, and BIDS Trading. In addition, many brokers have their own block-trading systems. In 2012, State Street acquired Pulse Trading, an agency broker that offered block trading and blotter sweeping technology. In June, Reuters reported that Goldman Sachs is offering a tool to top clients that attempts to automate block trading that ties into a broader platform known as Marquee. Prices are set by the bank's inventory and market conditions, according to Reuters.
But, Hegarty points out that some of the ATSs and crossing networks exclude the sell side, and also that Thomson Reuters is not a broker-dealer so it doesn't have a proprietary trading desk which leads to information leakage.
In particular, Hegarty cites three advantages of Block Connect that will appeal to the sell side and distinguish it from ATSs. First, since the sell-side are clients of AutEx's IOI network and they also use the advertised trade capability, executing blocks on AutEx can lead to increased efficiency and productivity, he said. Second, it can help the sell side, including mid-tier-brokers, to strengthen their buy-side relationships by helping them get block liquidity. Third, with pressures on commissions, block trading is one of the more profitable services the brokers can offer. "This allows them to do high-touch commissions with the buy side," said Hegarty, noting this is not program trading or algo trading which translate into low-touch commission rates.
Meanwhile, the buy side can get access to natural block liquidity, said Hegarty. This happens when a broker posts an IOI and a buy side firm clicks on it, which then turns it into a firm order. "They're getting the natural other side of the trade, which is a big deal for the buy-side," he said. Since the sell-side is not able to commit capital like they were five years ago, it's more important for them to access the other side of the trade, he added.
To fit into the buy-side's workflow, Block Connect has been integrated into the industry's leading sell side and buy-side OMS and EMS providers, including Eze Castle Group, Fidessa, FlexTrade and Linedata. "It's something that the buy side sees as a critical piece to be integrated with their workflow," he said.
Another advantage for the buy side is that Block Connect minimizes information leakage, said Hegarty. "Because we're only matching natural other sides of the trade, the information leakage is minimized," he said. "All we are doing is taking the natural liquidity available on Autex, and allowing our clients to take action on it. So it's always been natural liquidity that's in there, which is actually going to strengthen the value of the IOIs that are going across Autex," he said.
Preserving anonymity is another aspect since Thomson Reuters is not a broker and doesn't have a big prop-trading desk. "We're not going to be taking any of these orders and shipping them out across Wall Street. They get done in Block Connect or don't get done," said Hegarty. In fact, Thomson Reuters is using a separate broker-dealer to print, clear and settle the trades. It also handles the Order Audit Trail System (OATS) reporting to FINRA for the buy side.
[To learn more about how banks are preparing for and responding to security incidents, attend the Acknowledge the Inevitable: How to Prepare For, Respond to, and Recover from a Security Incident session at Interop 2014 in Las Vegas, March 31-April 4.
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"Because we are doing the OATS reporting, it keeps the buy side anonymous to the sell side until the trade is actually executed," he explained. This means the buy-side is kept anonymous until after the trade is done, but the buy side can contact the counterparty post-trade, said Hegarty said. Asked what will be the biggest difference between Block Connect and ATSs, Hegarty said it will the ability for the buy side to contact the counterparty post-trade. "That is not something that any of the ATSs or crossing networks have available," he said.
Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio


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29 Apr 2010 General Electric Questioned About Its Attacks on Conservatives
David Ridenour at 2010 GE shareholder meeting
General Electric's plan to shed a majority stake in NBC Universal may be an attempt to repair GE's tarnished image with conservatives and moderates.
At the General Electric shareholder meeting in Houston Wednesday, I asked GE CEO Jeff Immelt about the growing public perception that General Electric is committed to a particular ideology, which isn't in the long-term interest of shareholders.
As an example, I noted that MSNBC, part of GE's NBC Universal, runs programming that is offensive to a substantial portion of the population. Keith Olbermann has called the Tea Party movement the "Tea Klux Klan" and has said the Republican Party wants to re-impose Jim Crow Laws.
Whatever your political outlook, I said, this doesn't make sense for GE – offending a substantial number of GE customers or would-be customers. I noted also that a large number of GE shareholders, including those gathered, sympathize with what the Tea Parties are trying to do or are members of the Republican Party.
I then noted that the Gallup organization has consistently shown that the number of people who self-identify as conservative outnumber those who self-identify as liberal 2 to 1. This, I said, is further supported by the fact that Fox News Channel has been far more successful than MSNBC, consistently getting more than double the viewers.
I then asked him to explain GE's thinking in going after the 21% of the population that is liberal rather than 79% of the population that isn't, but Fox is, with NBC's programming. I also asked what he was doing to address the perception – especially among conservatives — that GE stands against them.
Quite a bit of applause followed.
Immelt didn't answer but went to the next question.
Later, I asked the questions again, noting he hadn't even attempted to answer my questions.
He said that GE has never attempted to influence the programming for its news or public affairs programs.
I asked: What about CNBC?
That goes for CNBC, too, he said.
I then interjected that its been widely reported that GE did just that (see New York Post article here) to curb criticism of President Obama's agenda.
Again, he asserted GE never attempts to influence programming.
Then he suggested that it was a moot point anyway because GE had divested itself of NBC Universal.
I responded, GE will still have a 49% stake.
Immelt then thanked me and moved on to the next questioner.
More questions about NBC Universal – both on its politics and on the proposed sale –followed.
What was particularly interesting is that on at least three occasions, including once during my question, Immelt said GE was divesting itself of NBC Universal – a point that is factually incorrect.
When asked by one shareholder how much control GE will have over the NBC Universal joint venture with Comcast, he said "effectively none."
GE will have a 49% stake in the company, have representation on the board of directors and yet have zero influence over the decisions?
This has all the markings of a company that wants to continue to influence NBC Universal programming (by serving on the board) and yet avoid accountability.
When Rachel Maddow says Tea Party activists can't hear what they're cheering for because their white hoods muffle the sound (yes, she said that), and Immelt is called on it in the future, he simply will blame Comcast.
The company has burned a lot of bridges with conservatives, not only through NBC Universal, but its support for cap-and-trade legislation, participation in TARP, and lobbying for stimulus dollars.
That's likely one of the reasons GE is reducing its stake in NBC Universal – this also may be the reasoning behind its gift of $15 million to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and becoming a presenting sponsor of Reagan's centennial celebration.
The political winds are changing… and all the GE-built wind turbines in the world can't change that.
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Labels: Business, Climate, Conservatives, Media, Protests


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European horror pretty much disappeared from American screens in the early seventies, as their content became more adult. Horror in the U.S. was kiddie matinee fare, and A.I.P. had to routinely censor nudity from the newer Hammer films. When Continental fare turned even more erotic, most couldn't find American distributors, or screened in ridiculously bowdlerized versions. The DVD revolution of six years ago launched a number of small companies that specialized in rounding up un-aligned product. This created a horror boom as clever importers tracked down uncut original versions of a genre wave unseen in the States.
Now, almost the entire filmographies of Mario Bava and Dario Argento are represented on DVD, and, although there are plenty of bonafide classic Eurohorrors still awaiting the nod (The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, Mill of the Stone Women, Eyes Without a Face), many arcane titles are surfacing in definitive versions. An Italian oddity from 1973, Baba Yaga is a new addition.
Blue Underground's annotated presentation of Baba Yaga does more than justice to a so-so film limited by its maker's own stylistic ideas. In an excellent interview, director Corrado Farina explains his obsession with the erotic comic strips of Guido Crepax, and his attempt to meld them into the film medium. Baba Yaga is taken from one of Crepax's works, and very literally copies compositions and graphics from the printed page.
Essentially, it's nothing different than what English directors had done in the middle 60s, with the fractured editing of films like The Knack. Dynamic comics like those of Crepax freeze action into little chosen panels, and vary the size and position of the panels to approximate a movie experience. In the Crepax-Farina view, a series of small images in a comic represents a series of short cuts in a film. This is okay but rather academic when put into action on film: Farina's erotic sequences quick-cut static overexposed images, but don't remind us of the comics as much as they do the cutting of 'mod' television commercials, which were already obsolete in 1973.
Farina discounts previous attempts at a comic strip sensibility, namely Barbarella and Diabolik. The Bava film is actually much more successful than Baba Yaga because it moves. The graphic posturing in Baba Yaga tends to be static. The film hasn't much story, and even that is broken up by visual sequences that tend toward various kinds of erotic and sadistic clichés - Nazis stripping a passive heroine, the heroine leading a firing squad against another female, etc. The special sequences are never more than decorative, generic SM material, even when they relate to events in the film's 'reality.'
Baba Yaga has some very strong aspects. The photography is beautiful, and the main actress De Funès has stunningly interesting eyes (she's the daughter of a famous French comedian). The settings and set dressings are well-judged, even if the glossy comic-strip world of sleek apartments doesn't hang together.
Hardy's The Encyclopedia of Horror, once a reference bible, is slowly becoming outdated as we finally get to see the films first read about in its pages. The entry on Baba Yaga is fairly accurate, but the photo of one of Valentina's erotic fashion shoots (they go by very quickly in the film) mistakenly misidentifies the nude model as Carroll Baker. This is one of Baker's hot continental films, and both she and De Funès shot full frontal nudity that was trimmed from release prints (but dutifully presented here as an extra for the genre horn-dogs). Baker's presence is okay, but nothing overwhelming.
The overall impression of Baba Yaga is an emphasis on pictorialism over the erotic, and a lack of attention to story detail. Valentina's associates are promiscuous, trendy, affluent counterculture types who pay lip service to revolution in empty speeches about the worthlessness of commercial assignments, etc. But they're all resolutely hetero, including the white female model who propositions the black male model after a particularly dull photo session. The original mythic Baba Yaga is a Russian witch character, an evil old crone. This Baba Yaga is just a phantom lesbian necromancer who weaves spells around her object of desire, Valentina.
Evil=witchcraft=lesbianism. In this context, the evil witchery is firmly associated with lesbianism, and condemned out of hand. Baba Yaga has her day but is dispatched back to hell (literally falling through the floor). It's probably unconscious, but the filmmakers endorse a very conservative agenda - Farina seems a fairly serious artist, but he's not very liberated. His attempt at showing a supposedly trendy TV commercial - where a white hero turns a black villain into powder to represent the potency of a new detergent - is just lame.
As mentioned before, Isabelle De Funès is riveting to watch. George Eastman (Cani arrabiati) is just okay, and Carroll Baker is borderline miscast - her sorceress doesn't have much to offer in the way of menace or gravity - she's just too obvious. The enchanted bondage doll-turned-human (Daniela Balzaretti?) strikes a nice note of artificiality - she reminds of Hugh Hefner's masturbatory fantasy from Playboy, the Femlin.
Blue Underground's disc of Baba Yaga is attractive and loaded with appropriate extras that make an obscure film more understandable. Packaging, menus, design and layout are all first-rate. The enhanced transfer must be from prime elements, as it looks brand-new. The lounge-jazz score by Piero Umilani is well served on the track. Besides the deleted scenes mentioned above, there is a poster and still gallery, a DVD-Rom comic to film comparison, and a trailer in perfect condition.
The movie is presented only in English, but the actor's lips often match the dialogue perfectly, so it's difficult to decide if it was premiered this way. There are two docus. Farina and Valentina is a thorough interview with the director, and Freud in Color is a dated but interesting piece on Guido Crepax that goes to great lengths to equate the ex-architect's comics with filmmaking.
On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Baba Yaga rates: Movie: Fair Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: Two docus, deleted scenes, film-comic comparisons, trailer, stills and posters Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: May 29, 2003
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MOGADISHU, Somalia – Four car bombs by Islamic extremists exploded outside a hotel in the capital, Mogadishu, killing at least 20 people and injuring 17, said police.
After the three explosions in front of the hotel, a fourth blast hit as medics attempted to rescue the injured.
The suicide bombs detonated near the perimeter wall of the Sahafi Hotel, which is located across the street from the Somali Police Force's Criminal Investigations Department, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein.
Some of the victims were burned beyond recognition when one car bomb exploded next to a minibus, he said.
Somali security forces shot dead four gunmen who tried to storm through a hole blown into the hotel's wall but did not succeed in entering, he said.
"Although they failed to access the hotel, the blasts outside the hotel killed many people," said Hussein.
"The street was crowded with people and cars, bodies were everywhere," said Hussein Nur, a shopkeeper who suffered light shrapnel injuries on his right hand. "Gunfire killed several people, too."
Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the bombs, according to the group's Adalus radio station.
Among the dead was the manager of the Sahafi Hotel, whose father was the owner of the hotel before he was killed in an al-Shabab attack on establishment in 2015, said police Capt. Hussein.


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Collectivist Economic Planning
Free Downloads:
In 1920, Ludwig von Mises dropped a bombshell on the European economic world with his article called "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." It argued that socialism was impossible as an economic system. It set off two decades of debate, so by the time the essays appeared in English, in this very book here, in 1935, the debate was still raging. This volume edited by F.A. Hayek dug the knife into socialism's heart unlike any book to ever appear. It contains essays by Mises along with a foreword and afterword by Hayek. It also contains more commentary by N.G. Pierson, George Halm, and Enrico Barone.
It is exceptionally well edited and beautifully argued, and has not been in print for many years. The contents are nothing short of prophetic.
The so-called "Calculation Argument" has never been answered. It shows that without private property in capital goods, there can be no prices and hence no data available for cost accounting. Production becomes random at best, and completely irrational. Mises had convinced his generation and this book completely devastates the whole socialist apparatus from a theoretical point of view.
No one interested in this debate can afford not to be well-versed in the contents of this book.
Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD, London, 1963


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ATLANTA — Erik Kratz homered in the ninth inning off Braves closer Craig Kimbrel and John Mayberry Jr. hit a three-run shot off Cristhian Martinez in the 10th to help the Philadelphia Phillies rally for an 8-5 victory over Atlanta on Friday night.
Josh Lindblom (3-3) pitched a scoreless ninth, allowing one walk and striking out one.
Jonathan Papelbon earned his 31st save in 34 chances by striking out Dan Uggla, getting Paul Janish to fly out and striking out Eric Hinske in the 10th.
Martinez (5-4) allowed three hits, three runs, one walk and struck out two.
The Braves, who have lost two straight and three of four, dropped 6½ games behind first-place Washington in the NL East.
Philadelphia has won two straight and six of eight. The Phillies are 18 games back in the NL East, but they finished August with a 17-12 record.
Kevin Frandsen led off the 10th with a single, moved to second on Martinez's balk and advanced to third on Chase Utley's groundout. After Ryan Howard was intentionally walked, Martinez struck out Juan Pierre before Mayberry's 13th homer landed in the seats in left field.
Kratz's homer made it 5-all in the ninth. The blown save was Kimbrel's second since Aug. 3. Though Kimbrel has converted 32 of 35 chances this season, his last blown save came July 20 on a homer by Washington's Danny Espinosa.
Uggla homered off Jeremy Horst to break a 4-all tie in the sixth.
Martin Prado and Freddie Freeman hit two-run homers in the fifth off Phillies starter Roy Halladay to give the Braves a 4-1 lead.
Howard, whose 10th homer made it 1-0 in the second, cut Atlanta's lead to 4-3 in the sixth with a two-run single that chased Atlanta starter Mike Minor. Ty Wigginton's sacrifice fly off Chad Durbin made it 4-all.
Hallaway gave up seven hits, four runs, four walks and struck out three in 4 2-3 innings.
Halladay is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in four starts at Turner Field this year. The two-time Cy Young Award winner had gone 4-1 with a 2.75 ERA in his first five August starts.
The Phillies improved to 2-8 against Atlanta this year.
Minor led off the fifth with a single and scored with one out on Prado's eighth homer. After Jason Heyward's popup, Hallaway walked Chipper Jones before Freeman launched his 19th homer to make it 4-1.
In the sixth, Minor loaded the bases on singles by Jimmy Rollins, Frandsen and Utley. Howard singled softly to center to score Rollins and Frandsen and cut the lead to 4-3.
Howard has 40 homers and 115 RBIs in 129 career games against Atlanta.
Minor allowed seven hits and four runs with one walk and three strikeouts in four-plus innings.
On the last play of the fourth, the 40-year-old Jones was trying to score from second on Janish's single to center, but he was tagged out at the plate by Kratz. Though Jones lowered his shoulder and knocked Kratz on his back, Kratz held onto the ball to preserve Halladay's 1-0 lead.
Notes: Braves SS Andrelton Simmons has been cleared by a team physician to begin baseball activities and could start a rehab assignment on Tuesday. ... Rollins apologized to manager Charlie Manuel before the game and returned to the lineup a day after the former NL MVP was benched in the middle of a game for failing to hustle. ... Minor went 1-1 with 2.40 ERA in his first two starts against the Phillies this year. ... The Braves released SS Jack Wilson before the game and later announced a trade with Detroit for utility man Jeff Baker.


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By Wade Bourne
Making a good shot is one of the great joys in waterfowl hunting. Indeed, shooting is the pinnacle of this sport. Everything else – scouting, building blinds, setting decoys, calling, everything is a lead-up to that moment when you shoulder your gun and fire. Making a clean kill gives you an immediate sense of pride in a job well done.
So, how do you become a good shot? How can you convert misses into hits? What can you do to improve your accuracy and hold your own with more seasoned shooters in the blind or pit?
Good shooting is a mix of coordination, concentration and confidence. Good shooting is more instinctive than mechanical. It's a skill that is honed through adept coaching and lots of practice, similar to other athletic endeavors.
Here's a list of 10 tips for becoming a better shot on ducks and geese. Put these suggestions into practice and you'll shoot better and enjoy your hunting more.
1. Make sure your shotgun fits
A shotgun should flow naturally and smoothly to the shoulder, cheek to stock and master eye looking straight down the barrel. When a shotgun fits, the transition to this shooting position is second nature. The barrel automatically becomes an extension of the shooter's line of sight.
Take your shotgun to a gunsmith, and let him check its fit against your physique. If it's a misfit, he can make stock adjustments so it will rise and point naturally.
2. Practice shooting in the preseason
Too many duck and goose hunters leave their shotguns in their gun safes until opening day. Then they wonder why they can't hit anything. The easy answer is, they're out of sync.
This problem is easily corrected with some pre-season shooting practice. A dove field is one of the best possible training grounds for waterfowl hunters. Doves present the same relative angles and distances as ducks and geese, and because of the liberal bag limit on doves, shooters get to practice these shots repeatedly.
Shooting sporting clays is another practice option. Contact a sporting clays manager, and ask if you can come and choose certain stations to shoot over and over. Select those stations that are most relevant to waterfowl hunting: in-coming ducks, overhead geese, springing teal, etc. Stay on a station until you've mastered it, then move on to the next. Such repetition locks in your mind the right sight picture for breaking targets consistently. This transfers to your waterfowl hunting.
3. Don't get in a hurry
A key reason for missing ducks and geese is shooting too fast. Some hunters think they have to shoot quickly before the birds flare out of range. The truth is, when hunters wait that extra second or two when waterfowl are coming in, then rise up to shoot, there's plenty of time to take three deliberate, well-spaced shots before the birds get too far away. Consciously slow your pace. Don't be jerky when mounting your shotgun. Don't rush your shots. Try not to compete with your hunting partners. Just take your time, and focus solely on hitting your target.
4. Shoot one bird at a time
When a flight of ducks comes into the decoys, many hunters shoot … at the flight! They don't single out one bird, and concentrate strictly on it. An incoming flight of ducks is 95 percent air. This is why you need to lock in on one bird and stay with it until it drops. Don't "flock shoot." Don't switch targets. Don't let the excitement of the moment shatter your focus.
5. Shoot the trailing bird in a flight
Take the last or highest bird in an incoming fight. When ducks or geese are about to land, most hunters focus on the closest, lowest, easiest shot, and two or more hunters wind up shooting at the same bird. Instead, take a trailer with the first shot. Then your shotgun will be in the right plane to shoot flaring birds on the second and third shots. Also, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you downed birds that no other hunters were shooting.
6. Rely on instinct to calculate lead
There is no mechanical system for figuring and holding proper leads. It's all instinct. When tracking a bird, focus on the front of the target (look for the bird's eye), swing the gun and allow your mental computer to calculate the right amount of lead. It's like throwing a rock through a rolling tire. You don't think about lead. You just look at the tire, and throw the rock, and your internal processor automatically determines how far to lead it. It's the same with shooting waterfowl.
7. Don't stop swinging
Stopping the swing with the shotgun is one of the most common reasons for missing ducks and geese. You must follow through with your shot! Try stopping your club when hitting golf ball, and see what happens. This wrecks your timing and coordination. The same thing happens when you stop swinging your shotgun. Keep the barrel moving after firing. Having good follow-through is the proper conclusion to any athletic effort, be it shooting at a duck, swinging a golf club or throwing a ball.
8. On long passing shots, lead more than you think you need to
On long passing shots, the main reason for missing is shooting behind the bird. Force yourself to hold more lead than you think you need, and again, keep the barrel moving.
Practice long crossing shots on a skeet range. Stand 10 yards behind station No. 4 the one in the middle and fire repetitive shots at targets crossing at 90 degrees. This allows you to experiment and learn how much lead is needed at this distance and target speed. And it builds confidence in your ability to make this difficult shot.
9. When waterfowl are coming head on, blot them out and fire
When a bird is coming head-on and level, wait until it's in good killing range, then mount the shotgun so the barrel is below the target, and swing up and through the bird. When the front of the barrel blots out the target, pull the trigger. If a bird is coming head-on and descending (dropping into decoys), hold slightly beneath the bird so your shot column intercepts its glide path.
10. Attend a shooting school
This is perhaps the best single tip for becoming a better shot. Several shooting schools are available around the country. At a shooting school, a certified shotgun instructor will provide one-on-one tutoring. These instructors are trained to analyze shooting form, spot problems and correct them. Attending such a school is not cheap, but shooters can expect immediate results from their investment.
Here's the bottom line on becoming a good shot on ducks and geese: how well you shoot depends on how much effort you put into it. Sure, talent plays a role, but dedication and effort can largely make up for a lack of natural aptitude. Dedicate yourself to improving, then put the 10 tips above into practice. Your shooting average will go up, and the birds will come down.
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iPhone: Emails can be unique, but sometimes you just need to tell the boss you're "Running 10 minutes late," or ask a spouse what they need from the store. Pastie makes sending common text blocks to contacts fast and easy.
Pastie gives you a space to type out common messages, then decide whether you want to assign those messages a specific contact and delivery method (email or SMS), or decide when you click the "Pastie." For non-email and SMS purposes, Pastie also allows for quick clipboard copies of your text snippets to be pasted into any other app. The free/Lite version limits users to three text blocks, while the $1.99 full version does no such thing.
To see Pastie in action, check out the video demonstration (or click over to its Vimeo page for an impressively tall version):
Pastie Lite and Pastie are free and $1.99 downloads, respectively, and both require an iPhone running at least 3.0 firmware. If you're giving it a try, tell us about your most useful text snippets in the comments.
Pastie Lite
Pastie [iTunes Store (direct link) via CNET]